The Reivers Literary Analysis

Faulkner’s The Reivers is a story that follows a young man of only eleven years old as he is thrust from his comfortable home into the real world. He has had blinders on his entire life, but after he steal’s a car and drives to mention, spends the night in a brothel, and comes face to face with the darker more sinister and depressing aspects of humanity. Faulkner captures a darker side of the world in the novel, but it is done in a way that is light hearted even though Lucius is seen to struggle with the large amount of lust and greed humans can feel. It is a coming of age story that follows the antics of a few insane people who from the way they act seem as though natural selection looked the other way for them or are always one step ahead

The story really begins when Lucius and Boon steal Lucius’ grandfather’s car, and Lucius has to be conniving and clever to trick everyone in order to steal the car. All of this is interesting to read. During this, there is a side story on why his grandfather had the car. Colonel Satoris banned automobiles in town who was below Lucius’ grandfather in the hierarchy of the town, so he bought an automobile in order to repeal this ordinance. Colonel Satoris banned automiblies because a man Mr. Buffaloe got his own car and drove it through town disturbing the peace, and the events that led to Mr. Buffaloe owning his own automobile consists of several coincidences and his own ingenuity. These loosely related chain of cause and effect lead to Lucius’ grandfather buying a car that Lucius would then steal really beginning the story. These seemingly random things snowballing together into something great gives the story some credibility to it by making it part of a chain of cause and effect that are apart of the story. This brings the story to life as well by giving a legitimate reason for the owning of the car. These details